AFGHAN CHILDREN START NEW LIFE IN KOREA

[Anchor Lead]

Last month, some of Afghan special contributors settled down in Ulsan. Now their children have started school for the spring semester. Although they are some two weeks late, the Afghan children beamed with excitement and expectation for new schools.

[Pkg]

Children leave their apartments one by one, carrying school bags. They are children of Afghan special contributors who fled their Taliban-ruled country and arrived in South Korea last August. This is the first day they go to school since they settled down in Ulsan with their parents who work for subcontractors of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group. They also brought bags of snacks they put together to give out to their Korean classmates. On the bags, they wrote their names and greetings in Korean. They began school two weeks later than Korean students due to some needed paperwork like vaccination certificates.

[Soundbite] (Afghan special contributor)

Sitting at their desks, the students look a little nervous. At the same time, they beam with excitement for new school life in Korea. There are total of 85 Afghan children in Ulsan from kindergarteners to high school students. They will attend a special class for as long as a year to learn the Korean language and the culture. Classes will be delivered both in Korean and their native language via monitor. The Afghan students will be assigned to classes of different levels, based on their Korean language ability and understandings of Korean culture.

[Soundbite] Roh Ok-hee(Superintendent of Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education) : "Our students will live in a multicultural society. I hope you will greet the Afghan children warmly, as we are all friends."

The Ulsan education office will provide the Afghan children with equal education opportunities and the same welfare services as it does to Korean students including free school meals.